


Too Cold For You Here

by Rockingham



Category: Choices: High School Story: Class Act (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/F, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Rain, Sibling Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-15 18:20:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18504490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rockingham/pseuds/Rockingham
Summary: Bailey finds Skye at her doorstep in the middle of the night.





	Too Cold For You Here

Bailey hears her phone start to ring, she had just started to doze off when her ringtone blasts through her room. With a groan, she fumbles around for the device before looking at the ID to see who could be calling her at 12:32 at night. 

**Incoming Call:  
SKYE**

Bailey stares at the screen confused for a second, Skye never called her. Skye never called anyone, she hated talking on the phone. With a hint of panic Bailey hit the green icon on her phone before bringing it up to her ear.

“Skye?”

“Hey,”

The tone of Skye’s voice alone caused Bailey to sit up in her bed, there was an odd combination of exhaustion and distress in the other girl’s voice that Bailey hadn’t heard before. The casual tone Skye was trying to use was a defense that Bailey had grown to know, Skye was trying to act like nothing was wrong, but the fact that she called Bailey in the first place was worrying enough.

“Are you alright?” Bailey asks despite already feeling the answer in her gut, Skye’s silent on the other line and Bailey can hear something like…static? No that wasn’t the sound, Bailey glances over to the window in her room and notices the rain falling down quickly against the glass. A single rumble of thunder lazily carried through the small room.

“Not really.” Skye finally says, Bailey pushes her blanket off and stands up, holding her cell phone by her ear with her shoulder as she struggled to slip on her sneakers. “Sorry.”

“Skye?”

“I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“You didn’t!” Bailey lied as she stood up straight after hopping around her room like an idiot to get her shoe on and heading toward the door. “I was just surprised to see you call so I was just caught off guard.”

There’s silence again before the phone picks up another sound, almost like…chattering?

“Are you outside?” Bailey asks as exits her room with Frosty in tow, the large white dog looking up at her with worried eyes as Bailey’s voice grew more concerned. 

“Yeah.” 

Bailey hurries down the stairs like a buffalo, “OK, tell me where you are and I’ll come-”

No sooner does Bailey swing the front door open does she spot the red-haired girl standing a few feet away, cell phone to her hear and soaked to the bone. Her bright red hair and clothes clung to her form from the heavy downpour of rain. Every few seconds her petite form shivers from the late November cold, teeth chattering into the phone.

“SKYE!” 

Skye jumps at Bailey’s exclamation, she lowers her phone awkwardly.

“Hey.”

“You’re already here! Come inside before you freeze!” Bailey insisted stepping aside as Skye obeyed, stepping into the house as Frosty bounced around her, tail wagging at meeting a new friend. He circles Skye twice before sitting next to her with his head tilted. Skye looks over at him hesitantly before turning back to Bailey.

“Thanks,”

“Don’t thank me yet, we still have to get you warmed up.” Bailey insisted as she reached out to touch Skye’s arm, met by the cold wet fabric of her shirt. “You can use our shower to warm up! I think I having something that will fit you too so you can get out of you wet clothes.”

Bailey leads Skye up the stairs before she can protest the offer, Frosty follows faithfully, tongue sticking out of his mouth as he gives a doggy smile. 

“In case it wasn’t clear, you’re more then welcome to stay the night.” Bailey added softly, “You’re always welcome here.”

Bailey catches a soft smile on Skye’s face for a second. “Thank you.”

Bailey leads Skye to the bathroom before leaving her to her shower, retreating to her own room to find something for Skye to change into. It occurs to her that she doesn’t really know what Skye likes to sleep in so she ends up grabbing an assortment things that she thinks will fit her. As Bailey walks out of her room to deliver the pile to Skye she sees Cassey wondering up to her rubbing his eyes.

“That’s all the noise? Who’s in our shower?” Cassey asks with a yawn.

“Oh, Skye’s staying over.”

Cassey’s suddenly wide awake smirking, “Skye as in  _Oh My God her smile is just so pretty_ Skye?”

“Shut up!” Bailey whispered as she blushed as Cassey imitated her voice. Cassey smiles as he laughs softly. 

“All jokes aside, is she OK? I know you said she has a lot going on with her family.”

Bailey sighed, she had told Cassey a little about Skye, but not too much since she wasn’t sure if it was really her place to say anything. “I’m not sure yet, I’m just trying to fend off hypothermia now.”

“OK, well, I’ll leave you to it then.” Cassey yawns again and turns to head back to his room. “But I will be teasing you about this later.”

Bailey snorts and takes the bundle of clothes to the bathroom, pausing a second when she hears the water still running. “Skye? I brought the clothes, I’m going to leave them on the counter.”

“OK,” Bailey hears the other girl call back before she cracks the door open just enough to force the large pile of clothes through and onto the bathroom counter before retreated back behind the door. “Makeup removal wipes and a spare toothbrush are in the medicine cabinet, don’t be shy!”

A muffled OK is the response and Bailey turns to wait in her room for the red haired girl, almost running back into Cassey.

“I thought you went back to bed?”

“I remembered I woke up in the first place for a glass of water.” Cassey flashed the glass he was now holding. “Glad to see your taking care of my future sibling in law.”

“Shut up! Go to bed!” Bailey whispered harshly as she tried to push Cassey back to his room.

“Ok, Ok,” Cassey laughed as he started back to his own room. “Good-night.”

“Good-night” Bailey calls back as she returns to her bedroom, Frosty already made himself comfortable on the floor in his large doggy bed. Bailey yawns and sits on her bed looking at her phone. It was almost 1 am, her parents would be home from their late shift at the diner soon. 

“I appreciate the gesture but you didn’t need to bring me all of this.” Bailey looks up to see Skye enter the room, damp hair combed out and face clear of the dark makeup she usually wears. She decided on stealing on of Bailey’s sweatshirts, which is a bit big on her, and a pair of fleece leggings. She carries the ridiculously large pile of extra clothes Bailey had put together on top of the dresser. Bailey is struck for a second with how  _adorable_  Skye looks in her clothes. She may have even voiced the thought out loud if she hadn’t noticed how exhausted the other girl looked. 

“I didn’t know what you liked to sleep in.” Bailey rationed as she patted the spot on the bed next to her. Skye gravitated to her, sitting down next to her automatically. Bailey smiled, “Do you want to talk about it?”

It was almost tradition, whenever something happened with Skye’s parents Bailey would pull her aside so it was just the two of them. It seemed easier for Skye to talk about things when it was just them. But this time she’s unusually silent, as if trying to figure out if she really wanted to talk about it.

Bailey gives her time and waits patiently, there was really no reason to try to force it out of the other girl. Skye usually did talk to her about these things, so Bailey was sure she’d share as soon as she was ready.

“I can’t take it anymore.” Skye says it so quietly that Bailey almost misses it. Her expression softens as she watches Skye wrap her arms around herself, curling into herself a little.

“Skye…”

“It was so stupid, Brian wanted me to do something near impossible. Erase some photos he took after he already sent them to some girl. I tell him I can’t and he got pissed off.” Skye exhales slowly, “And suddenly it’s all my fault. Brian wouldn’t have gotten pissed if I had just done what he wanted. My parents sided with him immediately. It doesn’t matter what he does to me, he’s the one they always listen to.”

“I know your a tech genius, but even I know what he asked you to do was impossible.” Bailey offered, “You can’t erase something from a phone you don’t have.”

“That’s what I said.” Skye frowned, “But that doesn’t matter, Brian wanted it done, so I should have done it even if it was impossible.”

“That doesn’t make sense! You parent’s didn’t side with you at all?”

Skye snorted like it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. She then moves to lift up her left arm, pulling the sleeve of the borrowed sweatshirt down to reveal a dark bruise forming on the side of her wrist.

“No.”

Bailey doesn’t know what to say as she eyes the injury Skye showed her, the fact that Skye was getting hurt in her own home made her incredibly worried about the other girl. 

“Do you need ice or-”

“Can we deal with this in the morning?” Skye asks as she pulls the sleeve back down over the bruise. Bailey is silent for a moment, not really wanting to let to go, but it was past 1 in the morning, it was fair that the other girl was tired and didn’t want to deal with it right now.

“OK,” Bailey stands from the bed to get some spare pillows from her closet to set up camp on the floor, “You can take the bed. I’ll sleep over here.”

“I’m not kicking you out of your bed.” Skye commented before pausing, Bailey almost doesn’t see the pink blush cross her face. “We can share.”

“Oh, OK” Bailey smiled and turned out the light before the two settled in bed. Bailey thought she’d be more nervous about sharing a bed with someone she was crushing on, but everything with Skye just felt, normal? Bailey hears Skye shift beside her and turns on her side to see Skye had turned to face her, although she looked like she was thinking about something.

“Hey,” Skye moves to look up at her, “We’re going to figure this out, I promise.”

Bailey sees tears start to form in Skye’s eyes a second before she shifts forward, wrapping an arm around Bailey in a tight hug. Bailey pauses for a moment, completely shocked at the show of affection by the other girl.

“Thanks,” Skye’s voice cracks a little and Bailey wraps her arms around the smaller girl. Her one arm trapped under Skye’s head as the other moves to rub circles into her back soothingly. Bailey listens to Skye’s breathing until it settles and becoming even as she falls asleep. She smiles before falling asleep herself, the events of the evening catching up to her.


End file.
